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Post by markesq on Dec 12, 2018 16:47:35 GMT -5
It's been coming, and we've all been in different places on what crimes he may have committed, or not, and whether there'd be comeuppance. But today, surely, even the staunchest Trump supporters among us must agree that the man committed crimes, and lied about it.
" The publisher of National Enquirer has said it coordinated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to pay a Playboy model $150,000 in hush money, placing the president and his inner circle in further legal peril. "American Media Inc (AMI) told prosecutors it worked 'in concert' with Trump’s campaign when it bought Karen McDougal’s story of a sexual affair with Trump, which it suppressed 'to prevent it from influencing the election."
I suppose we could keep up the pretense that, "Hey, it was Trump's campaign, Trump himself had no idea they were doing this."
Except....
Michael Cohen, 52, admitted in August that on the eve of the 2016 presidential election he made a $130,000 payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels and arranged for a $150,000 payment to the former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Today he said: "“I take full responsibility for each act that I pled guilty to,” Cohen told the judge. “The personal ones to me and those involving the president of the United States of America … 'It was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.'"
I guess one could maintain that Cohen is a lying sack of crap and that Trump still didn't know about all of this. But I can't think that's anything more than self-delusion at this point, it defies all logic and reason.
I also agree with this notion: "The prominent supreme court lawyer Neal Katyal called the sentence “bad news for Trump”. “In most jurisdictions, subordinates who carry out felonies at the direction of their boss get lower criminal sentences than the boss."
ETA:
One other line I'm hearing from the republicans (looking at you Lindsey Graham) is: "I still don't see collusion." Not a defense, it's the legal equivalent of shouting, "Look, squirrel!" This is partly because "collusion" isn't a crime anyway, but also because it's no defense to committing robbery to say "Well, you can't prove I murdered anyone." (The conspiracy charge, imo, is still to come.)
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Post by Optimus on Dec 12, 2018 19:21:52 GMT -5
For the people who still currently strongly support him even after all the awful garbage, lies, and histrionics that come out of his mouth, I doubt this will do anything to sway their opinion of him, unfortunately. Like he said, he could shoot somebody in the middle of the street and people would still vote for him. That seems to be one of the only true things he's ever spoken.
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Post by Amadan on Dec 12, 2018 19:58:40 GMT -5
If a bone saw didn't do it, nothing will.
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Post by mikey on Dec 12, 2018 20:44:37 GMT -5
And yet, tons of people see the alternative to Trump as a worser deal.
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Post by robeiae on Dec 13, 2018 11:29:34 GMT -5
I thought Trump was a crook--I prefer the term "grifter," still--long before any of this. Him paying off women he slept with just doesn't make me gasp all that much. Because I think the rich and powerful have been doing this since...well, since forever.
It's not a good thing, of course. And we--the voters--shouldn't accept it when we find out about it, regardless of the "who" it involves. I would hope this all would be enough to dissuade people from voting for Trump in 2020, and I would also hope it would be enough to force other such instances with other pols into the clear light of day, so people know who they are really voting for. But I have my doubts.
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Post by nighttimer on Dec 13, 2018 15:42:49 GMT -5
When Trump says "I'm Not A Crook" it'll be real. But he'll never say it. Catch him live on camera with the gun still smoking in his hand, his fingerprints on the bullets and Jeff Bezos, Bob Mueller and Hillary Clinton all lying in a heap on the floor and Sarah Sanders will say he shot them all in self-defense and Trump will be believed. That's how cults work and there is a cult of personality around Trump. Plus, he has over $ 100 million bucks already raised for his 2020 reelection campaign. At this point in their presidencies, neither Obama or Bush43 had $10 million in the bank. That's a formidable advantage over any challenger and should he be accused or indicted for anything, that pile of money he's sitting on will only grow and grow. Trump is a crook. And a racist and a sexist and a xenophobic bigot and a babbling idiot and a know-nothing fool, and a degenerate pervert and a terrible awful no good person and going into 2020, he's a prohibitive favorite to win a second term. That's today. Tomorrow? |
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Post by Vince524 on Dec 17, 2018 13:14:22 GMT -5
Asking if we can all agree on if Trump is a crook is kind of like asking if the Earth is round. No matter how much proof you offer, there's still going to be someone insisting it's flat. Sometimes just to be stubborn.
Besides, has anyone stopped to think about how a question like this makes other crooks feel? You think they want to be associated with Trump?
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Post by michaelw on Dec 17, 2018 21:07:17 GMT -5
Besides, has anyone stopped to think about how a question like this makes other crooks feel? You think they want to be associated with Trump? Richard Nixon must be turning over in his grave. |
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Post by Don on Jan 1, 2019 8:00:54 GMT -5
Besides, has anyone stopped to think about how a question like this makes other crooks feel? You think they want to be associated with Trump? Richard Nixon must be turning over in his grave. Nixon's got nothing to fear. His place among the most damaging of presidents is secure. Trump's still got a way to go to get into that league. AFAIK, he hasn't launched a race-based war against the inner cities or decoupled the whole economy from reality. Heck, he's not even in the top ten yet. He needs to inter thousands of american citizens, suspend habeas corpus, turn money creation over to the banksters, or nuke a couple of cities if he wants on the big list. |
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